America is finally falling in love with women’s sports. College athletic programs are dismantling the very system that built them.

Earlier this year, the University of Arkansas announced plans to eliminate both its men’s and women’s tennis programs, citing the financial pressures of the post-NIL era and the escalating costs of major college football. After public backlash and donor support, the university reversed course and retained the programs.

That outcome should be celebrated. But the larger lesson should concern everyone who cares about the future of college athletics.

Women’s and Olympic sports should not exist only at the mercy of emergency fundraising campaigns.

Across the country, athletic departments are quietly reevaluating nonrevenue sports as they absorb the financial pressures of revenue sharing, NIL and the escalating costs of football. Increasingly, programs survive not because universities view them as essential institutional........

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